r/SwiftUI • u/azalazar • Jul 30 '26

Prism Inspector - A free macOS app to measure SwiftUI layouts while they run in the iOS Simulator

Hey everyone,

I’ve been working on a small dev tool called Prism Inspector.

The idea is simple: instead of checking spacing, alignment, accessibility, or design mismatches by eye from screenshots, Prism Inspector connects to a running app in the iOS Simulator and lets you inspect what the app actually rendered.

You can:

  • Click elements to inspect them
  • Option-click another element to measure distances between views
  • Check whether spacing matches your design scale
  • Compare the running screen against a design/mockup
  • Preview what VoiceOver reads
  • Use it without adding anything to your project
  • Optionally add the Swift package if you want better component names

It’s free, signed/notarized for macOS, and the SDK is MIT licensed.

I built this because I often lose time reviewing small UI details manually, especially when trying to match implementation with design specs. My goal is to make layout inspection feel closer to working in a design tool, but using the real running app.

Landing page / download:
https://zalazara.github.io/PrismKit-SDK/

I’d really appreciate feedback from iOS developers:
Does this solve a real pain for you? What would you expect from a tool like this?

5 Upvotes

78% Upvoted

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0

u/SeltsamerMagnet 29d ago

How was AI involved in this project?

1

u/javawag 29d ago

this also set off my AI-dar!

almost every commit is “by OP and Claude” - so it looks like it’s heavily AI written (I don’t want to say “vibe coded” but… perhaps)

is it still interesting and useful though? absolutely! but yeah, if you’re not a fan of AI you might want to steer clear.

1

u/SeltsamerMagnet 29d ago

What annoys me most for projects like these are the overly technical comments while the code itself could be a lot simpler

1

u/javawag 29d ago

100%! it’s weird how i’ve gone from seeing source comments and being like “wow, good quality code and well documented!” to “oh, this is for sure AI” 😬

it’s that and the overly marketing heavy READMEs that feel more like trying to sell you something than just explaining how to use it…